1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



65 



iw twm- 



And a man's foes shall he they of his own house- 

 hold. He that loveth father or mother more than 

 me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or 

 daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And 

 he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, 

 is not worthy of m 3. —Matthew 10; 33, 37, 33. 



f ENCLOSE $1.00 for Gleanings. I do not 

 like to leave you, as I started in with your 

 _. first No., an i have every No. since, 

 bound in book form. However, I am frank 

 to say that I am not pleased with 

 Gleanings the past year; your contributors are 

 not first class, and 1 think the energy devoted to the 

 confounded Home Department might be better em- 

 ployed in strictly attending to your legitimate busi- 

 ness, apiculture. 



Give us as good a paper as possible the coming 

 year, and leave out of sight as much a« possible, the 

 capital I's. Hoping these remarks will be taken, as 

 they are meant, in all kindness; that you may have 

 a prosperous year; that we (your readers) may have 

 a better Gleanings than ever, and not be bored to 

 death with the swishy, swashy, '''■Home Papers,"— 

 I am trulv &c, 



Granville, O., Jan. 7, 1879. W. H. Sedgwick. 



P. S. — T could not get Geo. L. Jones to renew; he 

 said he had enough of Gleanings. The old reliable 

 A. D. J. was good enough for him. W. H. S. 



Thank you for speaking out your views, 

 friend S., for, although such criticism often 

 stings keenly, one who has a Christian spirit 

 should he able to look up pleasantly and re- 

 ply gently, even though the criticism be an 

 unjust one. I should b3 very sorry indeed 

 to bid adieu to any of my readers, and espe- 

 cially to one who has been a subscriber from 

 the first number of Gleanings. In our 

 text above, Christ has told us that, in follow- 

 ing him, our foes may be of our own house- 

 hold. I have no idea, friend S., that you 

 will ever stand in the light of a foe, but it 

 seems that you, and very likely many others 

 of my readers, may be vehemently opposed 

 to the way I have felt it my duty to conduct 

 a bee paper. Shall I stubbornly set at 

 naught the wishes of my readers"? By no 

 means, for such a course would be very far 

 from exemplyfying the spirit of Christianity. 

 My duty is rather, to be guided by the wish- 

 es and wants of my readers ; to study their 

 good, rather than my own. The voice of the 

 people, taken in a proper sense, is the voice 

 of God; and this is one great truth that I 

 have been learning of late. To illustrate my 

 meaning clearly, I shall have to tell some 



stories. I might avoid saying I 1 1 



so much, if I made up these'little stories, but 

 I confess I do not feel really at home, in tell- 

 ing fiction. I might also tell about other 

 folks, and their faults and failings, but I do 

 not like to do that, for if I use other lives, 

 even by way of illustration, I know, by ex- 

 perience, that I often hurt their feelings. 

 Will you not excuse me, even if I do speak 

 of myself? 



At one of our revival meetings, an intem- 

 perate man who was quite well known in ' 

 our town was converted. It was noised 

 abroad, and the little boys on the street were 

 talking about it next morning. Said one : 



"I do not believe any such thing." 



"Why do you not believe it? 11 



"Because I just saw him passing along,; 

 and he was smoking a cigar.' 1 I 



The boy seemed to feel, instinctively, that 

 a converted man would have some other way 

 i of occupying his time, the morning after he 

 was truly converted, than by smoking cigars. 

 I presume the rest of the boys all agreed 

 with this view of the case, and yet they were 

 profane, bad boys. There is something in 

 humanity that points out the right way, even 

 if they are of the most depraved classes; and, 

 when we will hear it, the voice of God speaks 

 out clearly and distinctly from the multi- 

 tude, even though they be bad men or women. 

 People will disagree widely, as you, friend 

 S. , and the subscribers whose letters in regard 

 to the Home Papers might lie beside yours 

 on my table; but, if we listen for the voice 

 ! of the multitude, quietly and without preju- 

 i dice, we shall hear the voice of God, saying 

 I most plainly whether it is his wish that the, 

 work should go on or stop. Father and 

 mother, or those equally near and dear, may 

 j find fault and object, but he who loves God 

 I and God's work more than all these will oft- 

 en rind that his duty lies directly against the 

 opinions of these near and dear friends. If 

 1 the work is right in the sight of God, friends 

 and aid will spring up in places least expect- 

 ; ed ; but woe be to him who shrinks at the 

 idea of encountering opposition, or losing 

 friends or support, in doing his duty. 



Ministers, as well as other people, some- 

 times call this an ungrateful world; they 

 sometimes tell of how they have labored and 

 toiled for those who are always unthankful. 

 They have labored all their lives for human- 

 i ity, but have been passed by unappreciated. 

 t Somebody else who was undeserving took 



the credit of all their good deeds, and "O 



dear! this is just the way the world goes. ,, 

 Yes, this is the way the world goes, and I 

 think the world did about right. You will 

 excuse the world there, will you not? The 

 , world, doubtless, gave them just the credit 

 '. they deserved. Individuals are sometimes 

 partial, but the mass of the people, never. 

 What one omits, some one else will do. If 

 you are not appreciated it is, doubtless, be- 

 cause you do not deserve to be. Labor for 

 humanity, because Christ has said, "Inas- 

 much as ye have done it unto the least of 

 one of these, ye have done it unto me;" la- 

 bor for them for Christ's sake, and for no 

 other reason ; have no favorites, be impar- 

 tial, and the voice of God will soon be heard, 

 through the voice of your fellow men, giving 

 you all the thanks and all the credit you de- 

 serve. It is a happy thought, and a" happy 

 feeling, my friends, when you can kneel both 

 morning and night, honestly believing that 

 you are having more of the blessings of this 

 world, and more credit, than you justly de- 

 serve. 



Do you know how Moody worked alone, 

 scarcely thinking, much less caring, what 

 people thought of what he was doing? Do 

 you know how he used up all his money in 

 trying to help others, and almost forgot 

 about himself? lie wondered if God had 

 forgotten him. No; I tell you, God had not. 

 Right from among those people with whom 

 he had been laboring came the voice of God, 

 assuring him he should not suffer as long as 

 they had a cent of money, and a crust of 

 bread, and from that time on, they tried to 



